Agreed - I was very surprised to hear this. From Dividend.com:
"In the late 1960s, the volume of trading activity increased dramatically. With the drastic increase in volume, the NYSE had $4 billion in unprocessed transactions by 1968. To catch up, the exchange closed every Wednesday from June 12, 1968 to December 31, 1968. During this crisis, over 100 brokers failed due to the high volume of transaction that could not be processed."
Today, the NYSE processes trading volumes of 3-4 billion shares per day.
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Agreed - I was very surprised to hear this. From Dividend.com:
"In the late 1960s, the volume of trading activity increased dramatically. With the drastic increase in volume, the NYSE had $4 billion in unprocessed transactions by 1968. To catch up, the exchange closed every Wednesday from June 12, 1968 to December 31, 1968. During this crisis, over 100 brokers failed due to the high volume of transaction that could not be processed."
Today, the NYSE processes trading volumes of 3-4 billion shares per day.